Cost there a dispute between “ treble ” and “ triple ” ?
I ‘ve been readingThe Economistrecently and noticed that the magazine uses bothtripleandtriple. According to my dictionary , “ treble ” signify “ threefold ; triple ” . Cost there a subtle difference , not capture by the dictionary entry ?
- The Economist ’ sindex of non-oil commodity prices make trebled in the past ten .
- The number of caller from Brazil , India , China or Russia on the Financial Times 500 list trebled in 2006-08 from 20 to 62 .
- That act own more than trebled since 1999 .
- The Economist ’ secindex of non-oil commodity cost own triple in the past ten .
- The number of companies from Brazil , India , China or Russia on the Financial Times 500 list trebled in 2006-08 from 20 to 62 .
- That issue has more than triple since 1999 .
- In the ten year to 2010 , internet user in the developed economies simply roughly tripled .
- Intercepts of Chinese planes virtually tripled last yr , to 96 ( learn chart ) .
- Many of the 20 leading economical performer in the OECD duplicate or tripled their education spending in real terms between 1970 and 1994 , even outcomes in many countries stagnated—or went backwards .
- In the 10 years to 2010 , internet users in the developed economy simply nearly triple .
- Intercepts of Chinese planes almost tripled last year , to 96 ( learn chart ) .
- Many of the 20 leading economical performer in the OECD duplicate or tripled their instruction expenditure in literal terms between 1970 and 1994 , yet outcomes in many countries stagnated—or move backwards .
5 Response
Accord to the Cambridge Corpus of American English , Americans strongly favortripleas an adjective , noun and verb . British and Australian author , on the other hand , appear to use bothtripleandtreble, but withtreblemore frequent as a verb andtripleas a noun and adjective .
Fowler differentiate betweentreblemean that something make become three time as big in size , andtriplethink of consisting of three parts , but that no longer look a dependable guide , if it always exist .
( Adapted from ‘ The Cambridge Guide to English Usage ’ )
I ‘m a British English speaker , and I think I agree with Russell : triple suggests three different thing and treble suggests three the same . A triathlon would be a triple event ( never a treble ) , but three successive wins would equal a double ( rarely a triple ) . Analogously , a double of something would ever be two the same ; duple ( though its seldom apply outside technical context such as music and biology ) would signal two unlike things .
In British English use I think Fowler live correct . For example you ‘d lecture about a ‘triple sundae ‘ ( three unlike components ) or ‘triple therapy ‘ ( therapy comprising three unlike drug ) , whereas you might read ‘treble nine ‘ for 999 . Personally I would n’t use the early word in any of those suit . To me , ‘treble ‘ is three times the same matter and ‘triple ‘ exist three of different things .
Good I ‘m not then certain abouttreblebeing employ more as a verb in the UK because whenever you learn a British sportsman observer , they order : “ This team/player behave the treble last yr ” meaning he won three competitor and as well when mass scream out their phone issue , they will say “ Oh double five seven two … ” butdoublecost definitely used more thantriplein the sense of to grow three-fold simply as dual means to grow two-fold .
And I ‘m not also happy about the rule for respond hither . It state ,Make n’t do statements base on opinion- back them up with address. What are references but others ‘ opinions ? Even official facts be opinions about a set of datum , are they not ? : ) With less strict rules , there might betriplethe issue of responses .
One other role of double I receive heard live as an alternative to the tidings soprano . In this event , triple is never use .
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